Racing News

Engine Problems End a Positive Weekend for Supaloc Racing

The Supaloc Racing team suffered a disappointing end to Round 1 of the Australian GT Championship at the Adelaide street circuit, retiring from the weekend's opening race with engine problems.

After qualifying third, the team's driver Kevin Weeks ran in the top-5 for the opening 15 laps of the one-hour race, but according to the team's technical director Oscar Fiorinotto, the engine problems became noticeable after qualifying.

“At the end of qualifying, the car came in very hot,” Fiorinotto said. “At that stage, we didn't notice any problems, but when Kevin started the car to drive it back to the paddock, the engine started smoking heavily.”

“We then discovered that the engine had suffered a valve guide failure, which also damaged the piston and cylinder. We replaced the valve guide overnight, but at the start of the race, the engine was down on power because of the damage to the cylinder.”

“It became progressively worse during the race, so we decided to pull the car in rather than risk blowing the engine altogether.”

Even though it was not the result the team was aiming for, Weeks's qualifying performance and the balance of the Supaloc Racing Lamborghini on the Supashock Suspension demonstrated plenty of potential for the remainder of the season.

“In qualifying, Kevin set the fastest individual sectors of anyone, so he could have been on pole position,” Fiorinotto said.

“The Supashock suspension was brilliantly compliant on the kerbs, bumps and undulations around the Adelaide street circuit, so dynamically, the car is extremely well sorted. We will bounce back in upcoming rounds of the series,” Fiorinotto concluded.